Several approaches have been suggested for the purpose of reducing the amount of water used, such as an amount of washing water, etc., in processing steps in view of environmental conservation, water resources or cost. For example, in S. R. Goldwasser, "Water Flow Rates in Immersion-Washing of Motion Picture Film" in Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, No. 64, pages 248 to 253 (May, 1955), a method for reducing the amount of washing water by means of utilizing multi-stage water washing tanks and countercurrent water is proposed. Further, a system for saving water wherein color photographic materials are subjected to a stabilizing step substantially without a water washing step after a bleach-fixing step is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,324. These methods are effective for saving water, and have been applied to various types of automatic processing machines.
However, reduction of the amount of washing water leads to an increase in an amount of various kinds of processing solution components remaining in color light-sensitive materials after processing. Some parts of these remaining processing solution components act as nutritive elements, and, as a result, a new problem occurrs, in that photographic materials thus-processed are highly likely to become moldy during preservation. Further, the increase in the amount of remaining components cause other problems. More specifically, they react with unreacted coupler remaining in the photographic materials to form stain, or they react with image-forming dyes to accelerate fading of the dyes.
Of the above described problems, the growth of mold is also troublesome even in conventional cases wherein the amount of washing water is not reduced. Therefore, many methods have been proposed for preventing the growth of mold. For instance, it has been described that pentachlorophenol is effective as an antimold to be added to a stabilizing bath after a conventional water washing step in Phot. Sci. Eng., Vol. 3, page 132 (1959). However, this compound is extremely poisonous and can not be practicably utilized. Further, in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 135942/85 (the term "OPI" as used herein means a "published unexamined published application"), the effectiveness of ammonium ion releasing compounds as antimolds is described particularly for processing methods in which the amount of washing water is reduced. However, the mold inhibiting function of these compounds is not completely sufficient, and, in addition, they have a problem in that they accelerate fading of dyes in color photographic materials depending on types of dyes employed.
On the other hand, with respect to the prevention from stain, methods using a stabilizing solution containing a water-soluble chelate compound of barium, calcium, cerium, etc., as described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 184343/84, a water-soluble compound of magnesium, aluminum, strontium, etc., as described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 185336/84, or a water-soluble metal salt of barium, magnesium, calcium, aluminium, etc., and a hydrogen ion releasing compound as described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 239751/85.
However, the effects of these methods are still not fully satisfactory. In particular, their effects on color light-sensitive materials for photographing are very poor. Moreover, when these methods are applied to color light-sensitive materials for photography, a problem also occurrs in that fading of image forming dyes is accelerated. Accordingly, a processing method which does not cause such problems even when the amount of washing water or stabilizing solution is reduced has been strongly desired.